Moore Not Watching Watchmen

Watchmen author talks about signing away his movie royalties and his position on the film adaptation

Who Watches the Watchmen? Well, it certainly isn’t Alan Moore, the man who penned the seminal graphic novel back in the mid 1980’s.

On the heels of hearing Dave Gibbons, the man who illustrated Moore’s tale, wax poetic about his recent set visit, it’s no surprise hearing what “Uncle Alan” had to say in a recent interview with Wizard about his feeling on the production.

Knowing that Moore was likely tired about answering questions about the upcoming Zack Snyder film, Wizard’s Kiel Phegley danced around a direct question by asking if Moore had seen the poster his buddy Dave made for last year’s Comic-Con:

No. I spoke to Dave the other day. I got a piece of paper—they must’ve learned something from the “V for Vendetta” debacle. I got a piece of paper a couple of months ago saying, “I, the undersigned, hereby give you permission to take my name off of the film and to send my money to Dave Gibbons.” So I sent that back to them all signed and sealed, which means that now I don’t have to rant and spew about the film. I’m just simply not interested in it. Dave phoned me up, and it’s always nice to talk to Dave, but he understands that I’m not really interested in “Watchmen.” So when he phoned, he asked me if I was interested in being kept up to date on it, and I was saying, “Well, it’s always nice to talk to you, but not really.” I don’t really know much about it. I believe that it’s going ahead. I won’t be watching it, obviously. I can at least remain neutral to it as long as they’re taking my name off of it and not playing these silly, ultimately futile games like they were doing last time, which worked out so well for them. No, I’m keeping well away from all of that.

No surprises there. Some fans, who have been very enthusiastic about the film adaptation so far, have voiced their hope that Alan Moore would at least take a closer look at the production, and perhaps lend a hand to help it stay on course. It certainly doesn’t look like that will ever happen.